Shipping container



D. H. BLATT SHIPPING CONTAINER Aug. 1 957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 uwEN-roia Ionvlo H- BLHT ATTORNEY Filed April 2, 1966 Aug. 6, 1957 D. H. BLATT2,801,784

SHIPPING CONTAINER Filed April 2. 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 g INVENTOR BUFWID H- BLHTT ATTORNEY srnrrmo- CONTAINER David H. Blatt, Elkins Park,Pa., assignor, by mesne assignment's, to Owens-Illinois. Glass Company,Toledo,

Ohio, a. corporation of Ohio Application April 2, 1956, Serial No.575,525

4 Claims. Cl. 229-23 This invention relates generally toshippingcontainers formed of corrugated board and the like and more particularlyto a. novel construction of a toroidal shaped container.

It has long. been recognized. by shippers of articles of circular form,such as coiled pipe, tubing, cable, wire, tire casings and other such.annular shaped articles, that when. the same are packed in containers ofsquare shape, such containersentail considerable waste ofvaluable floorspace, particularly in transportation vehicles, in relation to the shapeof the article encased in the container. Obviously, if the outer shapeof the container may be made to conform generally to the external shapeof its cont'ained article, the number of such article-filled shippingcontainers of a given size which may be stored within a given area.offloor space may be considerably increased. Such high density stackingof the encased articles not only during shipment thereof, but. also whenthe same are stored, results in substantial savings to both the shipper.and the consignee of the goods.

Having in mind the foregoing, it is among the principal objects of thepresent invention to provide an exceedingly simple and inexpensiveconstruction of toroidal shaped shipping container which is ideallyadapted for the reception of articles of generally annular shape, suchas coiled hose, wire, cable and the like.

More specifically, it is an object of the invention to form such a.toroidal shaped container of a pair of flat blanks of suitable sheetmaterial, such as corrugated paper board, which are respectively cut',scored and shaped into generally annular form and which are thenassembled in nested relation to provide the container with. an annulararticle-receiving chamber or well. having endless. concentric ,sideenclosing walls, a permanently closed bottom wall and a readily openabletop wall.

A further object of the invention is to provide a construction oftoroidal shaped hollow container suitable for the shipment and storageof relatively heavy articles which by the nature and form of itsconstruction is not only provided with a reinforced bottom wall and withoverlapping top closure flaps to adequately close the top of thecontainer after the annular shaped article is placed therein, but isalso strengthened throughout.

Still another and important object and advantage of the presentinvention resides in the fact that the toroidal shape of the containerin itself is such as to insure against any lateral shifting of thearticle packed therein, there being thus eliminated completely thenecessity of employing in the container any auxiliary packing or fillermembers of any kind.

Other objects of the invention and advantages inherent in. andresultingfrom the use of the container constructed in. accordance therewithwillbe apparent more fully hereinafter, it being. understood that thepresent invention consists substantially in the combination,construction, location and general arrangement of parts, all as de-United States Patent scribed in detail in the following specification,as. shown in the accompanying drawings and as finally pointed. out inthe appendedclaims.

In the accompanying drawings which are illustrative of a containerconstructed in accordance with and embodying the principles of thepresent invention,

Figure 1 is a plan view of the blank cut and scored to form the outermember of the toroidal container;

Figure 2 is a plan view of the blank similarly cut and scored to formthe inner member of the container;

Figures 3 and 4 respectively show the blanks of Fig,- ures 1 and 2folded upon themselves with their free ends secured preliminary to theirbeing shaped into the form of endless annular members; t

Figure 5' is a plan view of the outer member expanded to annular shapeand showing the bottom flaps thereof. in overlapped, secured togetherrelation;

Figure 6 is a plan view of the inner member expanded to annular shape,showing, the bottom flaps thereof. extended in position to overlie thebottom flaps of. the outer member;

Figure 7' is a plan view showing the bottom flaps of the inner and outermembers secured together to form the completed container, with. its topflaps. open;

Figure 8 is a plan view of" the completed container showing its topclosure flaps in closed. position;

Figure 9 is a. perspective view, partly in section, of a portion of thecontainer; and

Figure 10 is a transverse sectional view of the container as takenon theline 10-10 of Figure 8.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, it will be observedthat the container of the present invention is essentially constructedof two rectangular blanks. 10 and 11 formed of suitable sheet material,such as corrugated fiber board, the blank 10 constituting the outershell of the container and the blank 11 constituting the inner shellthereof.

The blank 10, which is scored longitudinally along the spacedparallel.lines 1212 and transversely along the uniformly spaced lines 13, is alsoslit at. opposite sides thereof, as at I414, to provide a central panel15' having along each opposite side thereof a plurality of relativelyfoldable flaps 16 and 16 The blank thus scored" and slitted may be bentalong the transverse fold lines 13 into the shape of. a polygonal shellhaving a wall portion formed of contiguous sections of the central panelall. of the same size and. shape. In the particular constructionillustrated, the panel 15 is transversely scored; to provide eightidentical contiguous sections 17' which are relatively bendable aboutthe transverse fold lines 13' to form an octagonal shell.

The flaps 16 along one side of. the panel 15 are foldable inwardlytoward the center of the preliminarily formed. shell and at right anglesto the angularly related wall sections 17 to provide the shell with aninwardly extending flange (see Figure 5) which is made up of the severalflaps 16 disposed with their corner portions overlapping one another.Upon permanently securing together the overlapping corner portions ofthe adjoining flaps 16, as by wire staples 18 or otherwise, the outershell formed of the blank 10 assumes a. more or less rigid polygonalshape, in which formed structure the flaps 16 respectively extendcoplanar with the angularly related wall sections 17.

In order to complete the external: shell: structure as shown in. Figure5', the opposite: ends of the central. panel 15' thereof are joinedtogether in abutting relation, as by an adhesively secured tape 19 orotherwise. Preferably, this tape 19 is applied before expanding theblank Patented Aug. 6,1957

I the bottom unturned flange of the outer shell.

into polygonal shell form, as by folding the blank about its centraltransverse score line and then taping together its free ends, as shownin Figure 3, to provide a relatively compact, fiat structure convenientfor handling and for storage.

The blank 11, of' which is formed the internal shell structure of thecontainer, is also longitudinally scored, and transversely scored andslitted to provide a central panel 20 having a plurality of contiguousSections 21 adapted to be angularly'related to form a wall of polygonalshape and a plurality of relatively foldable flaps 22 and 22 extendingfrom opposite sides of the wallforming central panel 20. As in the caseof the blank 10, the contiguous sections 21 of the panel 11 are all ofidentical size and'shape to provide a polygonally shaped shell of whichthe wall sections are all angularly related to the same degree. However,the blank 11 is appreciably shorter than the blank so that the shellformed thereof is diametrically smaller than that formed of the blank10. Preferably, the number of foldable wall-forming sections 21 in theblank 11 equals that of the corresponding sections in the blank 10, sothat upon nesting the shell formed of the blank 11 within the shellformed of the blank 10 their'corresponding angularly related sectionsmay be disposed in spaced, parallel relation to provide a containerhaving an annular article-receiving chamber or well.

1 In order to insure maintenance of the inner and outer shells of thecontainer in their desired concentric relation, the flaps 22 of theblank 11, when the latter is expanded into shell form, are turnedoutwardly as shown in Figure 6 so that they respectively extend at rightangles to the angularly related wall-forming sections 21 and so areadapted to overlie the corresponding flaps 16 which form As in the caseof the structure formed of the blank 10, the opposite ends of thecentral panel 20 of the blank 11 are suitably hingedly joined, as by aflexible adhesively secured tape 23. The blank 11, like the blank 10,may be doubled upon itself, as shown in Figure 4, to form a compact,substantially flat unit which is adapted to be readily expanded intogenerally annular shape to form the inner shell of the assembledcontainer.

For effecting a permanent assembly of the nested inner and outer shellstructures, the outwardly turned flaps 22 of the expanded inner shellare permanently secured in superposed fiatwise relation to thecorresponding inwardly turned flaps 16 of the expanded outer shell, asby wire staples 24 or otherwise. The resulting structure is a toroidalshaped container (see Figures 7, 8 and 10) of substantial strength andrigidity having an annular well 25 which is ideally adapted to receivecircular articles, such as coiled hose, cable and the like. The annularwell 25 is thus provided with a double thickness bottom wall formed ofthe permanently secured overlapping flaps 16 and 22, with spaced,concentric side walls formed respectively of the angularly relatedcontiguous sections 17 of the blank 10 and the corresponding sections ofthe blank 11 and with overlapping top closure flaps formed respectivelyof the flaps 16 and 22 of the blanks. These top closure flaps normallyextend coplanar with the wall-forming sections to which they are joinedduring assembly of the inner and outer shells to make up the completecontainer and until after the container is loaded, whereupon first oneset of the closure flaps (e. g. those designated 22*) and then thesecond set thereof (e. g. those designated 16 are folded across the opentop of the well to close the same, the two sets of top closure flapsbeing thus disposed in substantially the same relation as are thoseforming the bottom of the well. However, in order tofacilitate openingof the container, the top closure flaps in their overlapped relationmaybe held closed by adhesive tape or any other suitable means (notshown) which lends itself readily to easy opening of the topclosureflaps.

It will be understood, of course, that the blanks 10 and 11 may betransversely scored and slitted at uniformly spaced intervals to provideeach of them with any desired equal number of contiguous wall-formingsections, which number for each blank may range from three (to provide ahollow container of triangular shape in hOIi? zontal cross-section) tomore than the eight shown in the drawings (to provide a hollow containerof generally cylindrical form in horizontal cross-section). Obviously,the hollow container is always of polygonal shape in horizontalcross-section because of the angularly related flat side wall sectionsthereof, but the greater the number of such sections employed inconstructing the walls of the nested shell structures the more closelywill the completed container approach a truly cylindrical shape.

It will be apparent also that the effective transverse width of theannular article-receiving well 25 of the container may be varied asdesired by simply varying the transverse width of the opposite sideflaps of the blanks 10 and 11, while the depth of the well may be variedby changing, as desired, the transverse width of the centralwall-forming panels of the blanks. Thus, if a narrow, deep well isdesired, the opposite flaps of the blanks 10 and 11 would be of reducedwidth while the central transversely scored panels thereof would be ofsubstantially increased width. Conversely, if it is desired that thetoroidal container be provided with a wide, shallow well, the side flapsof the blanks 10 and 11 would be relatively wide as compared with thewidth of the transversely scored central panels thereof. Althoughunnecessary in all instances, it is preferred that the overlapping flapsforming the stapled bottom of the toroidal container and thoseconstituting the top closure elements are of such relative transversedimension that they all extend across the bottom and the top of thecontainer well for the full width thereof, thereby insuringsubstantially complete transverse overlapping of the overlaying pairs ofthe flaps.

It will be apparent that the present invention is subject to variouschanges and modifications which may be made from time to time withoutdeparting from the general principles or real spirit thereof, andaccordingly, it is intended to claim the invention boardly, as well asspecifically, as indicated by the appended claims.

What is claimed as new and useful is:

1. A shipping container of generally toroidal form comprising a pair ofblanks of sheet material cut, scored and folded to provide a pair ofhollow shell members each of the same polygonal shape in horizontalcross section but of different diametric dimension, said members beingnested one within the other to provide an annular article-receiving welltherebetween, said blank being each characterized in that it includes aplurality of angularly related contiguous wall-forming sections, each ofsaid sections having flaps extending laterally from oppo': site edgesthereof and adapted to be folded at right angles to the plane of theirassociated section, the flaps extend ing laterally from the bottom edgesof said wall-forming sections constituting the bottom closure flaps ofthe aunular well of the container and those extending laterally from thetop edges of the wall-forming sections constituting the top closureflaps for said well of the container.

2. In a shipping container as defined in claim 1 where-' in the bottomclosure flaps associated with one of said shell members aresubstantially disposed in a common plane extending normal to the axis ofthe container with the end portions of adjoining pairs of said flaps inoverlapping relation. 7

3. In a shipping container as defined in claim 1 wherein the bottomclosure flaps associated with one of said shell members aresubstantially disposed ina'common plane extending normal to the axis ofthe'container with the end portions of adjoining pairs of said flaps inover lapping relation, and wherein said overlapping end por tions ofsaid flaps are permanently secured together. i 3

4. In a shipping container as defined in claim l where in the bottomclosure flaps associated with one of said shell members aresubstantially disposed in a common References Cited in the file of thispatent plane normal to the axis of the container with the end UNITEDSTATES PATENTS portions of adjoining pairs of said flaps securedtogether in overlapped relation and wherein the corresponding flaps2527'842 Muuaney 950 associated with the other of said shell membersrespec- 6 FOREIGN PATENTS tively overlap and are secured to the flaps ofsaid first mentioned shell memben 856,245 France June 7, 1940

